Let's Find a Teaching Job for Ahmad Hassan in DFW

I hope I'm not embarassing him by writing this post, but Ahmad Hassan, from Oklahoma, is an attendee at the NTOS meetings when he has the time to make the trek down here from Norman. He is currently working on his PhD in philosophy up there, and I have mentioned to him at a couple of meetings that he needs to find a job here in Texas, preferably in the Dallas area after he finishes. My reasons are entirely selfish. Since I live in Texas, this is where I primarily want to see things change for the better. The faster we can get Objectivist professors into Texas university philosophy departments, the faster we can change the culture.

If any of you here have any of those metaphorical "strings to pull" to help him find a teaching job here in the DFW area after he finishes his PhD, I recommend that you use them.

Organizer's Note:As a moderator for this board, I deleted an irrelevant and impolite comment (for educated society) about Rush Limbaugh. I may share the sentiment, but it is not an appropriate verbalization on our message board or relevant to this thread.-- Todd

To answer Nathan's question: None that are philosophically important. I am studying classical Greek (and taking my 6th semester in the fall), but both because the language is incredibly complex and because it is "dead," it is difficult to read, much less speak, fluently. (Philosophy departments seeking specialists in ancient philosophy, however, usually only require that the applicant be able to _read_ classical Greek.)

Also: Rush, the band, is great. Rush Limbaugh, however, gets mixed reviews. While in many ways he is a typical conservative, he does often make good points (e.g. in economics and in opposing Islamic Fundamentalism), which are undercut by his religious ethics of self-sacrifice. Also, I think he fully has the right to speak, and (as I understand) he stays in business because people _voluntarily_ listen to his shows (thus making the show times marketable to advertisers). Liberal talk shows, by contrast, seem to have a difficult time staying. What I think is more ominous than Limbaugh is suggestions by the Left that those like him be _forcibly_ shut down or censored. The Left, too obviously, cannot compete with Limbaugh, Savage, etc. on a free, voluntary market of ideas.

Is classical Greek that far from modern Greek? I realize language changes a great deal, but I guess I didn't think about classical Greek actually being considered "dead" like perhaps Latin may be.That is interesting.

Yes, classical Greek is very different from modern Greek (though, naturally, there are some similarities). In fact, modern Greek even has a slightly different alphabet. What makes it more complicated is that there are dozens of "dialects" of classical Greek (Homeric, Attic, Koine or Biblical, etc.), and because these are often transitional stages of the language, they contain many irregularities. From what I understand, modern Greek is much more regularized.

I heard of a group of Church "elders" on the island of Sicily who still speak the Koine (New Testament) dialect of Greek. But other than that, as far as I know, classical Greek is dead like Latin.

--Ahmad Hassan

Is classical Greek that far from modern Greek? I realize language changes a great deal, but I guess I didn't think about classical Greek actually being considered "dead" like perhaps Latin may be.That is interesting.

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